About $67 million in additional funding will help pay for the widening of Interstate 75 in Hancock and Wood counties.
The Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission this week approved reallocating funds from an under-budget Cleveland bridge project to I-75 reconstruction, according to a state Department of Transportation spokesman.
The I-75 work was expected to cost $366.5 million, but revised estimates as construction approaches say it will require $68.3 million more, according to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.
This phase of the project will widen I-75 from Hancock County 99 to Perrysburg from two to three lanes for both northbound and southbound traffic. The work is scheduled to begin this year.
In the next phase, a third lane will be added from Hancock County 99 to just south of the U.S. 68/Ohio 15 interchange, or about five miles. That phase won’t begin until 2015 at the earliest.
Construction of a new interchange at I-75 and U.S. 224 is already underway. Improvements to the I-75 interchange at U.S. 68/Ohio 15 and to the U.S. 68/Ohio 15-Lima Avenue interchange also will made in the next several years.